In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of peach tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘MAY PRINCESS’.
During the spring of 1998 I gathered fruit from several different unnamed seedlings in my experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). One particular group of peaches was early in maturing, yellow in flesh color, and clingstone in type, and was designated “VEP (OP)”. I used embryo rescue techniques to germinate the seeds from this fruit, grew them as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse, and upon reaching dormancy transplanted them to a cultivated area in the experimental orchard described above. During the fruit evaluation season of 2000 I selected the claimed variety as a single tree from this group of “VEP (OP)” described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of peach tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ rootstock (unpatented) upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is most similar to ‘Crown Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,070) peach by producing peaches that are very firm and non-melting in texture, yellow in flesh color, and a red primary skin color, but is distinguished therefrom by requiring much less chilling hours, by having a sweet instead of bitter kernel, by having reniform instead of globose leaf glands, and by producing fruit that is smaller in size, that is flatter in shape, that has a light yellow background skin color, and that matures about three weeks earlier.